Prologue

Reporter Nancy Updike spends two days with Neal Smither, who cleans up crime scenes for a living, and comes away wanting to open his Los Angeles franchise, despite the gore — or maybe because of it.

Sometimes criminals return to the scene of their misdeeds — to try to make things right, to try to undo the past. Katie Davis reports on her neighbor Bobby, who returned to the scene where he robbed people and conned people.

Samantha Broun interviews her mom about surviving a brutal attack by Reginald McFadden 20 years ago, and sets out to interview friends, family and policymakers about how that attack changed Pennsylvania law regarding life sentences at the time.

Lots of things go unspoken between family members, sometimes for years.

Ira Glass talks to journalist Jochen Bittner about a political lie from 1920s Germany and the lessons it holds for 2020s America.

Ira talks with Connie Rex about the deer she and her sisters kidnapped and ended up putting into their school’s Christmas pageant in Woodruff, Utah, in a starring role.